The completion dates for two of British Columbia’s largest public infrastructure projects have been pushed back.
In a Friday media release, B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation revealed that the Broadway subway and the Pattullo Bridge replacement projects will both be delayed by at least a year.
“We have built these two projects all the way through COVID, figuring out what the pandemic meant, there are some delays related to that,” Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said.
“We’ve also had extreme economic disruption from the recovery of COVID, new wars around the world … components for our bridges and tunnels coming from all around the world has led to some delays.”
The news came in an update hailing “significant milestones” amid “significant global challenges” on both projects: the completion of the Pattullo Bridge tower and tunnelling for the subway.
According to the Ministry, the Pattullo replacement, which began in 2020, has been bogged down by inflation and global supply issues related to specialized components. The completion of its bridge tower — the tallest in B.C. — also “took longer than expected.”
The bridge is now forecast to open in Fall 2025. It was originally meant to be finished in 2023 and has already been delayed once.
The subway project has also faced delays, including on work to relocate major utilities and install traffic decks.
Tunnelling and station excavation, which have now been completed, also took longer than expected, in part due to a five-week concrete strike in 2022, the province said.
The subway line is now expected to enter service in fall 2027, a year behind schedule.
Fleming could not provide details on what the delays would mean to project costs, saying, “we’ll have those updates as we get them.”